President Together with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, he conducted an analysis of the state of affairs in the economy in order to determine priority internal factors of economic growth, said presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov. The talk, in particular, was about the use of breakthrough technologies in industry, the active attraction of domestic capital for these purposes, the improvement of banking mechanisms, modern stock market institutions and other opportunities.

They scored like the Greeks, but even let in the Bulgarians The Russian team rehearsed its last match in the group stage of Euro 2004. Yesterday, with a control game against the Bulgarian national team in Sofia, the Russian team began preparations for the June championship. This was the first and, perhaps, the last opportunity to assess the real strength of the Russian team before the continental championship.

The fate of the Israeli government will be decided in Washington Ariel Sharon's visit to the United States, scheduled for April 14, has caused an intensification of political battles within the country. The focus was on the plan for the Israelis to withdraw from Gaza and unilaterally secede from the Palestinians as a whole.

Rolandas Paksas found to be a violator of the Lithuanian Constitution The impeachment case of Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas is rapidly moving towards a conclusion. Yesterday, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Lithuania found Paksas guilty of violating the fundamental law on three of the six charges brought against him. Firstly, the head of state abused his position by granting citizenship to businessman Yuri Borisov, who financed his election campaign.

The creation of a monetary union between Russia and Belarus has been shelved Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin yesterday finally officially admitted what both Moscow and Minsk had been talking about for a long time: the introduction of the Russian ruble into circulation in Belarus is being postponed from January 1, 2005 to a later date - at least a year. According to Mr.

Viktor Tikhonov decided to resign The head coach of CSKA and the Russian national hockey team, Viktor Tikhonov, resigned from the post where he worked for 27 years. Having voluntarily left the position of coach of the army team, Tikhonov nevertheless retained his position as president and consulting coach of the hockey club, while continuing to lead the national team.

Kyiv fears American intervention Yesterday in Kyiv, during the opening of the forum of public organizations “Human Rights in Elections,” the famous American financier and philanthropist George Soros was thickly doused with mayonnaise. According to other reports, the overseas tycoon was stained with office glue. The hooligan act was carried out by members of the Brotherhood organization, which is headed by the notorious politician and journalist Dmitry Korchinsky.

Army aviation receives a new helicopter “A qualitatively new era has begun in the domestic helicopter industry,” the demonstration flight of the newest Russian fifth-generation combat helicopter Mi-28N, which took place yesterday in Rostov-on-Don, forced aviation specialists usually stingy with praise to use a pathetic formulation. Air Force Commander-in-Chief Army General Vladimir Mikhailov hastened to declare that there is no analogue to this all-weather attack helicopter.

Sergei Mironov joined the “greens” The new edition of the Forest Code, approved by the government in March, unexpectedly found an influential opponent - Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov. Previously, while implementing an environmental program known only to him, he concentrated on protecting muskrats, but now all Russian forests, which, as is known, cover two-thirds of the country’s territory, have become the subject of his care.

Friendship between Moscow and Beijing needs a new makeover The great building of Russian-Chinese friendship needs new decoration and good equipment. Only after this will the two peoples be able to live comfortably in it to the envy of their neighbors. Using this metaphor, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Liu Guchang tried to convey to journalists on Tuesday the current agenda of relations between Beijing and Moscow.

The Moscow Arbitration Court yesterday refused to satisfy Megafon's appeal against the decision of the court of first instance in the suit of CT-Mobile. Thus, the actions of the mobile operator, which did not allow Alfa Group (represented by CT-Mobile) to manage it, were declared illegal. However, due to the recent decision of the Stockholm court, Alpha will not be allowed to manage Megafon. CT-Mobile owns 25.1% of Megafon shares. Last summer, LV Finance sold CT-Mobile to Alfa.

Warsaw offers the Alliance a new strategy Poland is an example for the seven newcomers now joining NATO. Poland joined the Alliance along with the Czech Republic and Hungary five years ago and turned out to be the most zealous, clearly irritating the European old-timers of the bloc with its devotion to its main intercessor - the United States. It was Poland that pulled the Baltic countries with it, and now it is also calling on the leadership of the Alliance not to close its doors to Ukraine.

Beijing has tightened the visa regime for Americans. This is a response to the fact that Chinese citizens are now required to have their fingerprints taken when applying for a US visa. From now on, US citizens with diplomatic and service passports who plan to visit China on personal business are required to obtain a regular single-entry visa, for which they will be charged a fee.

New management offers recipes from predecessors Within two weeks, Gazprom will receive a development strategy from its “unsettled” subsidiary, SIBUR. At the end of April, it should be considered by the board of directors of the gas monopoly and decide the fate of the company, the return of which to its control is a source of pride for Gazprom management.

Arkady Dvorkovich went against the tide The head of the government for administrative reform, chief of staff Dmitry Kozak, achieved his goal. Today, at a cabinet meeting, the proposed structure of ministries, services and agencies will apparently be approved. It is known that the main intrigue is around how many deputies ministers should have. Mr. Kozak has long said that there will be two of them.